Cynthia de las Fuentes

Cynthia de las Fuentes (born 1964) is an American counseling psychologist serving as the 2024 president of the American Psychological Association (APA). Her career has focused on ethics in psychology, feminist and multicultural therapy, and advocacy for Latinx and immigrant communities. De las Fuentes was an associate professor at Our Lady of the Lake University from 1993 to 2007.

Early life and education Cynthia de las Fuentes was born in 1964 and raised in a Mexican American family. Her interest in psychology developed during an AP Psychology class in high school and was influenced by her maternal grandfather, who respected the field despite limited formal education. In 1984, De las Fuentes earned a B.A. in Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin in two years. At UT Austin's College of Education she continued her studies to complete a Ph.D. in counseling psychology in 1994. Her dissertation was titled, Ethical Decision-Making in Faculty-Student Multiple Relationships. Her doctoral advisors were Lucia Albino Gilbert and Melba J. T. Vasquez. Her teaching included graduate courses in Latino psychology, multicultural psychology, and applied ethics, aligning with her ongoing research and publications in these areas. She also held editorial positions for journals such as Psychology of Women Quarterly and Professional Psychology: Research and Practice. In these roles, she contributed to scholarly discourse on multicultural issues and ethics, focusing on the integration of cultural sensitivity in psychological practice.

Personal life

De las Fuentes adopted two daughters. She has a background in voice performance, which she pursued from childhood through graduate school, performing in her first opera at age 14. Her personal interests include reading, cooking, and watching Korean dramas.